RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Will Obama be a Debt Man Walking in 2012?

2011 was a disastrous year for our debt. Yes, the Republican Congress prevented Obama from passing his budget, which would have added $1.6 trillion in new deficit spending. Instead, they passed a budget that added an additional $1.3 trillion to the national debt. Overall, federal outlays in FY 2011 (which ended September 30) were $141 billion more than the previous year. For FY 2012, thanks to the disastrous omnibus bill, we are on pace to spend at least an additional $55 billion, including $10 billion more in discretionary spending. With welfare programs skyrocketing out of control, and as unemployment continues to remain abnormally high, those mandatory spending estimates will ineluctably be revised upward.

This president is so pathetic that after just three years in office he has accrued $4.5 trillion in debt, worth 30% of our current GDP. That’s more debt than Bush’s compassionate conservatism left us with after eight years in office. By the end of his first (and hopefully, only) term, he will leave the taxpayers with a $5.7-$5.9 trillion bill. Historically, most major spikes in deficit spending were precipitated by major increases in defense and war spending. This president will rack up record deficits even as he downsizes the military. In their chart of the week, the Heritage Foundation compares the average annual deficits of each president as a percentage of GDP. As you can see, it is no contest:

As this election year begins to mature, we will finally receive an answer to the $15 trillion question: With 47 million people on food stamps, 50 million on Medicaid, and almost 50% not paying taxes, are there enough people who care?